sabato 2 ottobre 2010

Glenn Hauser logs October 1-2, 2010

** AUSTRALIA. 15400, HCJB, best heard in a long time, during DX Partyline, Saturday Oct 2 at 1323, talk about HDTV viewers resorting to antennas, new vs old technology, somehow morphing into a Tip for Real Living, gotcha! 1325 onto Yukiko`s Asian DX News, including cancellation of R. Saint Helena Day next Saturday, but then quoting a sesquimonth-old log of 5030 Sarawak. QSL address: jswcqsl @ live.jp

Then Allen Graham ``here in Quito`` replies to letter from someone in Adelaide, and show does not end until 1330:40 so must have started at 1316+. Time varies, as Anker Petersen has heard it starting at 1313. ID as ``HCJB Global Voice, Melbourne, Australia``, nothing about Kununurra, plus own e-mail address. 1331 immediately into Chinese.

Meanwhile the other transmitter on 15340 was equally good and with similar modulation, in Hindi, benefiting from 15341 being Moroccoless.

BTW, HCJB`s September newsletter reports they are negotiating with the Abies, who apparently have the power to nix electrical supply:

``Update of Native Title negotiations

As you know, we are waiting on the granting of permission for
easements that will enable us to proceed with the High Tension Power
Line to our new transmitter building.

Recently our Kununurra Site Manager, Peter Michalke, met with the
traditional owners of the land and their legal representative to
discuss this issue. These ladies later visited our site at Kununurra
and spent time looking at our property and asking questions. The
meeting went very well and they were pleased to share time with us. In
the traditions of Aboriginal culture, we expect the ladies to discuss
this more widely in their community before passing a decision to the
MG Corporation.

This was a major step forward. Please give thanks that the meeting
took place and pray for God's enabling for smooth passage through to
the legal stages. Please continue to pray that this issue will be
resolved quickly and favourably.`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL [and non]. 6070, Oct 1 at 2326, undermodulated CFRX no stronger than CCI with fast SAH, CVC Chile as currently scheduled? No, not // 11665, and is beginning to sound like David Miranda, i.e. Radio Capital, Rio, which Ron Howard has also tentatively heard at a later hour.

5970, Oct 1 at 2333, poor signal but in the clear with typically enthusiastic Brazilian announcer, Oct 1 at 2333, not // 11765 SRDA with David Miranda. Presumably the listed R. Itatiaia, Belo Horizonte.

Meanwhile, SRDA Curitiba on 11765 was again accompanied by much louder wide and extremely distorted spur circa 12174, 2335 Oct 1 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Oct 2: No 8400 or 9380 but:
10500, poor with heavy flutter at 1258; fair with heavy flutter 1358
11100, even worse but recognizable at 1258; not audible at 1358
No others found up to 18 MHz after 1305.

15670, however had traditional Chinese orchestral music, but unseemed part of the standard Firedrake medley, Oct 2 at 1321. Per Aoki, this is jamming vs RFA Tibetan via UAE; maybe what CNR1 was playing at the moment? By 1400, YFR via Wertachtal, GERMANY overrode the Chinese music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. 9440, Oct 2 at 1304 poor signal but recognizably Esperanto, i.e. CRI via Nanning 954 site, 100 kW, 200 degrees per Aoki. QRDRM on hi side, i.e. 9445, VOR via Irkutsk at 12-16, 32 kW, 235 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

13710, Oct 2 at 1314, French service from CRI but playing song in English, ``Fly With Me``. 1317 French talk about Chinese participation in some EU activities, pronouncing Shanghai with proper tones. CRI`s French service seems quite eclectic. To Europe via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN.

15100, Oct 1 at 2347, weak and fluttery, sounds Chinesish. Yes, Per Aoki this is CRI in Cantonese, via Jinhua Youbu 831 site, followed by two more hours in other minority languages, Hakka and Amoy, and apparently colliding with Korea North after 0000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COSTA RICA. 9630, REE relay, Oct 2 at 0531 tune-in to open carrier only; then fitful spikes of modulation, eventually staying on, more or less. Wiggle that patchcord! I wonder, if when in DRM on 9610-9630-9650 at +00-02 UT, they have the same audio dropouts? Why not, same input route, no doubt. Trouble is, in DRM you don`t get a silent carrier, thus no reduxion in noise despite lack of modulation, another conceptual failure of the entire idea (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 17705, rechecking the very strong RHC transmitter heard 24 hours earlier: Oct 1 at 2333 in Portuguese, again buzzy on both sides, worst at 17665-17680, 17685-17695, and 17715-17750. There may well have been a matching notch 20-25 kHz on the hi side, but that was occupied by WYFR on 17725.

At 2348, found RHC Portuguese (Brazilian) also on 15380, but NOT // 17705. Did not listen long enough to figure out if they were seconds or minutes out of synch or totally different. One was in philatelic segment.

This is a strange situation, but per online sked, 17705 has a semihour Portuguese at 2330-2400, while 15380 has a fullhour at 2300-2400, so the content is different (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY [non]. 5980, Oct 2 at 1253, Russian tune-up tones, 1302 weak talk by YL in Chinese. It`s DW via Vladivostok, RUSSIA, 240 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. 4920, Oct 2 at 1231, very poor signal with lite flutter, news in English, from AIR Chennai. 60m has been unproductive here for Asians in the mornings, at least vs the noise level I have to cope with, so pleased to get this anyway. Perfect grayline:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Earth

4950 also had a signal, would like to suppose Srinagar, but surely Shanghai (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 3325, Oct 2 at 1235, outstanding signal from RRI Palangkaraya, compared to PNGs and everything else on 90m except WWRB 3185. Romantic song at first, but from 1237 YLs conversing in Indonesian, then with OM too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, excellent signal Oct 2 at 1306, news in English, but still plagued by occasional audio dropouts. This could be the number one external service in English audible in North America during this hour, if only they would fix the modulation and employ announcers without so heavy accents (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH. 2850, KCBS with soprano praising Kim (what else?), Oct 2 at 1242, S9+15; the radio war with het on 3480 also audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MALAYSIA/SARAWAK. 5030, Oct 2 at 1247 pop vocal music, poor, but improving; at this moment, RMS becomes strong enough to overcome the fading-down R. Rebelde 5025 ACI, but it too will soon fade (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MYANMAR. All the dentro-Myanmarian frequencies are tough to hear here, but Oct 2 at 1229, WYFR 5985 definitely has a het of slightly less than 1 kHz on the hi side, i.e. 5985.9, surely from Yangon. At 1253, WYFR is off and 5986- in the clear with talk, could be Burmese but too weak to be sure. By 1255, DRM was bothering all the way from Brandon 5995 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Oct 2 started checking 90m at sunrise, 1235 UT, finding weak carriers and some audio on several NBC channels, eclipsed by good signal on 3325 from INDONESIA [q.v.], such as 3365, 3345, 3315, 3290 --- and 3275, one I don`t usually hear, music at 1236, still 1240 island music, but very poor.

This is presumed R. Southern Highlands, Mendi, the only broadcast station in the world on 3275. Is it sporadically active? Checking the DXLD archive, there were two reports in September, one in June, three in January, mostly from Dave Valko in PA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Altho I did not go back to Government Springs Park, made a point of rechecking 24 hours later some of the oddities heard then, using same receiver and antenna at home QTH. Plus a second receiver to check for parallels.

5800 was again audible Oct 1 at 2308 in Spanish about obispos, naturally making me suspect WEWN, and indeed it was // and synchronized with 12050 and weaker 13830. Very weak signal on 5800, not always audible, and better on the reel-out antenna than a longer clip-on. At 2315 there again seems to be a mix with even weaker audio, and a het.

I am suspecting this is one of those local mixing products between a strong SW signal and a local MW, rather than a 49m leapfrog, perhaps coming off some metal object. B minus A, using either of the WEWN frequencies does not compute either with any recognizable frequency-station. One or both of my locals on 960 and 1390 may be involved, in which case no one else would hear this on 5800.

Last night I was listening as 5800 disappeared at 0000 sharp. If a local mix is involved, that would point to WEWN closing down. Both 13830 and 12050 do switch to other frequencies, 5810 and 11870, at 0000, but normally the change is axually made a few minutes before the hour. I was not monitoring at that time tonight.

The third WEWN transmitter, English on 11520, which could also be involved, continues past 0000. Juggling various harmonics and mixing products of 960 and 1390, I have yet to come up with any figure which correlates with 5800 or either WEWN fundamental.

A more remote possibility is that 5800 is a harmonic of one of the growing number of MW stations carrying the EWTN Spanish network, Radio Católica Mundial. That would come from 580 (x10), 1160 (x5) or 1450 (x4). Disappearance at 0000 could be explained by a powerdown or antenna change. However, I would not expect that to be synchro with WEWN after a satellite link (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1532 confirmed on WRMI 9955, Saturday Oct 2 starting at 1400:30; weak but audible with lite pulse jamming, perhaps bleedover from wall of noise against nothing(?) on 9965 which had also just started. Jeff White informs us that the Sunday morning airing of WOR has been reinstated, but at 1530 instead of 1515.

And the WRMI website
http://www.wrmi.net has just been redone, now linking to frequently updated program schedule grid; however, the Sept 29 edition still shows WOR Sundays at 1515.

As for WWCR, Tom Nyberg points out that their website now says:

``WWCR is testing the frequency 3.255 mHz on Transmitter #1. From 2 October - 8 October, WWCR will broadcast on 3.255 mHz INSTEAD of 3.215 mHz from 0100-0900 UTC.``

They of course mean MegaHertz, not milliHertz; so previous test hours on 3255 are being expanded, and affects this Sunday, WORLD OF RADIO at 0630; however, UT Oct 2 around 0530 they were still on 3215. The October program guide now posted shows no changes in WOR scheduling:
Fri 2030 15825
Sat 1600 12160 [reconfirmed Oct 2]
Sun 0230  4840
Sun 0630  3215 [3255 this week at least]
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA [non?]. 6165, where I heard RNV Sept 30 in the 23-24 UT hour, without explanation, absent when rechecked 24 hours later Oct 1, 2300, 2330, 2345, while usual 13680 and 15250 via CUBA were inbooming. The mystery remains and we should continue to check 6165 for it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6297+, Oct 1 at 2344, SASASAM with oud and soft singing, fair signal, better than it had been at 0603 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. Oct 2 around 1215 UT I performed another TP carrier scan of the MW band, and detected many of the same ones as last few mornings, but not as strong; 105, 90 and 60 m were hopping, however (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. Re previous 1081 item: ``persistent het on KRLD, Oct 1 at 0521 UT, presumably off-frequency Latin American as the TA channel is also 1080.``

On WTFDA-AM, 1081 was also reported by Curtis Sadowski, Paxton IL, Oct 1: ``One curious thing I've had here recently, a station running a test tone on 1080 overnight. Then suddenly went into classic R and B at 0503 CDT [1003 UT] one morning, and 0517 the other. Real, real obscure early fifties stuff, like from 1951 to 1954 or so, no IDs I could get, but went into CNN news at TOH before fade out.``

Saul Chernos replied: ``I have also heard this test tone on 1080 at Burnt River ON. I haven't linked any programming to it, but suspect something west of me. Perhaps Owosso MI given the format? Was WOAP looking at a site or some other transmitter change? Or am I mistaken about that?``

I thought I had checked 1079 and did not hear a carrier, so did not believe it was a DSB tone (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 5935, where BBCWS in English was heard 24 hours earlier, vacant when rechecked several times Oct 1 from before 2300 to 2345. May have been a test, or a fluke, Meyerton running overtime. But since not audible before 2300 either, maybe SOUTH AFRICA was not propagating today. Was it heard again at the DX Camp in Germany? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###